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he sentiment of a great past animates them all, and kindles in them the hope and ambition for as great and as proud a future. The exclusiveness of _Punch_ notwithstanding, he has not always been as inhospitable (if that is the word to use of an essentially business meeting of a private nature) as some of his friends would have us suppose. There are many who claim the distinction of having dined at _Punch's_ Table, but few who can sustain their pretension. Some, however, there are--a very few, it is true; but more than have been officially recognised as _Punch_ diners. Mr. Harry Furniss has publicly contended that his aunt, Mrs. Thompson, was one of these. As the lady, before she married Dr. Thompson, is said to have been originally engaged to Landells, the first _Punch_ engraver, this might well be; for about the time of the transfer of the property from him to Bradbury and Evans--and Landells, it will be remembered, did not give up the whole of his share till some time afterwards--the rules and regulations were not by any means so stringent as they ultimately became. In any case, the claims of "Mr. F.'s Aunt" have in her time been as strenuously insisted upon as ever they were at the Finchings'. Then came Charles Dickens--whose presence, I believe, is not contested. Before his quarrel with Mark Lemon and Bradbury and Evans, because _Punch_ declined to print a justification of himself in connection with his purely domestic circumstances, he was the guest of _Punch's_ publishers, who were his own publishers, and who were also the publishers of the "Daily News"--upon the preparations for which Dickens, as first editor, was then engaged. Moreover, Dickens was an intimate friend of Douglas Jerrold, whose influence on _Punch_ at that time was paramount; so that the double circumstance is amply sufficient to account for Dickens's presence at No. 11, Bouverie Street. Much the same considerations may be held to explain Sir Joseph Paxton's frequent attendance. The great gardener--it was _Punch_ who christened his big exhibition building "The Crystal Palace," "What shall be done with the Palace of Crystal?"--was the intimate of Mark Lemon. He had also the most cordial relations with the Staff, some of whom he would entertain in the gardens of Chatsworth, where he acted as the agent of the Duke of Devonshire, grandfather of the present duke, and himself on the best of personal terms with Mr. Punch. And I have proof that he exerte
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